In Kansas, ICM said that its Fiber Separation Technology is now being operated at four major commercial plants in North America. FST is part of ICM’s EPA-approved pathway to cellulosic ethanol and is a value-added platform technology that removes fiber from the Generation 1.0 ethanol process. FST increases ethanol and corn oil throughput and creates options for diversified co-products of high-protein livestock feed and high-energy livestock feed.

An important aspect of the FST process was developed through a joint partnership with Fournier Industries Inc., an equipment manufacturer headquartered in Quebec, Canada. ICM began working with Fournier around their world class rotary press design in early 2013, leading to a proprietary design of a Fournier Rotary Press for the global biofuels industry. The joint team incorporated improvements that lead to an increased throughput, a more dry cake, improved automated controls, and improved handling of the process stream temperatures required in this new application. The proprietary rotary press design provides significant advantages to the FST process through design optimizations as it uses approximately 1/10 the horsepower which reduces the carbon footprint. It also requires less maintenance than other dewatering devices.